a ANU Medical School , Australian National University , Canberra , Australia.
Teach Learn Med. 2014;26(1):56-63. doi: 10.1080/10401334.2013.857330.
Medical school is a challenging environment that requires students to deal effectively with stress borne out of the medical education environment, as well as their personal lives. Previous research has not systemically distinguished between academic and personal sources of stress, and in particular has not explored the independent contribution that academic stressors make to medical student depression.
This study aimed to investigate whether academic stressors make a unique contribution to the level of depressive symptoms in medical students, over and above the contribution made by personal stressors alone.
Sixty-seven medical students completed an online questionnaire designed to measure the total number of recent life events (personal and academic), and their perceived impact, using a modified version of the Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Interview Life Events Scale. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale.
Both the total number of personal stressors, r(67) = .363, p = .003, and their perceived impact, r(67) = .412, p = .001, were found to be positively related to depressive symptoms. A positive relationship was also observed between depressive symptoms and the total number of academic stressors, r(67) = .321, p = .008, and their perceived impact, r(67) = .489, p < .001. In addition, it was found that the perceived impact of academic stressors was able to explain higher levels of depressive symptoms in medical students over and above the effect afforded by personal stressors alone.
The findings of this study suggest that stress borne out of the medical school environment contributes to depressive symptoms in medical students over and above the contribution made by personal stressors alone. This indicates that although it is important to help students cope with stress borne out of their personal lives, interventions by medical schools aimed at reducing the impact of academic stressors on medical student depression may also be of great importance.
医学院校是一个充满挑战的环境，要求学生有效地应对来自医学教育环境以及个人生活的压力。先前的研究并未系统地区分学术和个人压力源，特别是没有探讨学术压力源对医学生抑郁的独立贡献。
本研究旨在探讨学术压力源是否对医学生的抑郁症状水平做出独特贡献，超过个人压力源单独做出的贡献。
67 名医学生完成了一份在线问卷，该问卷旨在使用精神病流行病学研究采访生活事件量表的修改版来衡量最近生活事件（个人和学术）的总数及其感知影响。使用流行病学研究中心抑郁量表来衡量抑郁症状。
个人压力源的总数（r(67) =.363，p =.003）及其感知影响（r(67) =.412，p =.001）均与抑郁症状呈正相关。抑郁症状与学术压力源的总数（r(67) =.321，p =.008）及其感知影响（r(67) =.489，p <.001）也呈正相关。此外，研究发现，学术压力源的感知影响能够解释医学生抑郁症状的更高水平，超过了个人压力源单独的影响。
本研究的结果表明，来自医学院校环境的压力会导致医学生的抑郁症状，超过了个人压力源单独的贡献。这表明，虽然帮助学生应对个人生活带来的压力很重要，但医学院校采取的干预措施，旨在减轻学术压力源对医学生抑郁的影响，可能也非常重要。
